Meeting a legend(ish). Ending my trip on a high note and 20K steps....

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Some days just don't go as planned and sometimes you have no idea how they are going to turn out.

This morning was absolutely one of those days. I started my day going back and forth to the laundry to get all my clothes washed in preparation for returning home.

Usually I return home and there is a big pile of laundry to be done when I'm exhausted from a long haul flight. This time I figured, forget that I'm going home with clean clothes. While the laundry was washing I decided to get some pandesal for breakfast and then start my day.

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(The morning laundry place)

Now I have one full day left in Manila before I have a flight out tomorrow. I figured I would head to the Makati Greenbelt as I haven't been there forever (20 years) and then head to Manila Bay to do the baywalk.

Now a year ago I met a struggling digital assistant. I introduced her to Hive but that never really took off for her Hive account@sej was her name. I reached out to her to see if she wanted to do lunch so I could hear about how she was doing and especially her family as one of her sisters was in Jordan and one was in Saudi Arabia. She was happy to catch up but wanted me to meet her employer. They just happened to be in the Greenbelt area so happy coincidence.

Now traffic in Manila can be brutal so I left a bit early to explore and ended up in Glorietta mall. It was gigantic (no surprise, Manila malls often are).

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First thing I scope out is the washroom situation. Nothing worse than being far from home only to have to do a frantic washroom search.

Next up?

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Cyberzone. Yeah I was walking through the all and was looking to see how expensive it was for a battery powered USB monitor so that I could hook up my Pixel phone to it. Travelling around with a laptop is nice but the extra hassle at the airport isn't. If I can get a portable monitor then I can save a bit of weight and save one more step when going through the airport screening.

I checked both SM and Glorietta mall but without success. That's OK, I was mostly just looking and it was cool to see them preparing for some online tournament :)

It was amazing how much Greenbelt area changed

When I came here 20 years ago getting to the Glorietta mall was a challenge, the area wasn't well developed and it was a little challenging to get around. This time the mall was beautiful and the surrounding grounds were just as nice

(Grounds outside the mall)

The biggest surprise was when I met Hive account@sej and her new employer!

(Image Mike Zeck, Hive account@sej and me Hive account@terganftp)

When I first say the man and said hello I was curious where he accent was from. I thought maybe British which would make this image way more funny :)

I kept thinking SMEGhead from Red Dwarf hahaha.

Anyways. It turned out that he was from Miami, USA. That's all good, older expat doing some sort of work in the Philippines. I still wondered what Hive account@sej was doing for him as a digital assistant so I asked what kind of work he did. He said he was retired which really made me wonder... then why does he need a digital assistant????

Turns out he is none other than Mike Zeck! Artist known for Captain America, Secret Wars, Spiderman Kraven last hunt series, Punisher and Shang Chi.

That was a jaw drop moment for me!

I loved comic books in the 1980s and actually meeting one of the premier artists of the time???

That

Was

So

Cool!

Also really cool to hear that Hive account@sej was doing fine. That her sister working in Saudi Arabia was back safe and sound. That her sister in Jordan had avoided missiles and wasn't under attack. Also that her dog was getting fat and lazy :)

We had some awesome Thai food and I'm just thinking about what to talk about with this gentleman. I asked about his career, his favorite artists, and how he ended up in the Philippines. I hope I didn't come off as some weird fanboy. I was looking forward to treating them to lunch but he got the bill

Seriously? I got to meet a legend in the business...and...he paid for lunch??

He even invited me to come back for a comic convention in Manila the first week of September. I seriously wish I could come back but really doubt I'll be able to :( ... even if he did offer to sign and verify a few comics for me (I'd have to find my Secret Wars comics in storage).

I really wanted to keep him longer but knew that I didn't want to wear out my welcome. I did ask for a selfie because...well, can't pass that up! He offered to take me back to his place and show me some memorobilia. He had Captain America stuff and Venom stuff (not much but a little) and a really neat, very tasteful condo. I was suitably impressed. Honestly? He was a really great guy and he totally made my trip. Finding out that Hive account@sej found the digital assistant job she was working so hard for also made me smile...even if she gave up on Hive :D

But my day wasn't over!

I then headed to Robinson's Malate.

You see there is a Manila Baywalk that I've never actually explored. So I used the mall as a jumpoff point and then walked the Manila Bay. It was warm but I was in the shade for much of the trip and there was a wonderful breeze. Now I didn't realize just how long the walk was and I was woefully prepared for a long walk in the sun.

I've seen prettier ocean pictures but still... it was cool to be by the ocean and the walk was wide, straight, in pretty good repair and uncrowded ... which is rare for Manila.

So I walked...

And I walked

And I walked by a Naval base.

And I walked through shaded areas.

Walked by the cultural center. I didn't even know they had a cultural center :)

The Manila baywalk ended but I still kept walking because there wasn't really anywhere else to go.

Then I found a cool little forested green area in Manila. I wondered how I'd passed it so many times in a taxi / Grab and never even noticed.

Then I had to cross a miserable intersection like this. Fun fact, I did this intersection without issue but there were some intersections in Indonesia (Surabaya) that I just couldn't find a way across. Those were truly impenetrable.

I was starting to overheat so cheap short term hotels were starting to look very appealing.

I stopped and got some lunch instead and made sure to have a drink and buy a second extra drink for hydration.

Then I kept on walking. I passed both the US Embassy, Japanese Embassy, and Depeartment of foreign affairs. Then I got to a really big intersection which specifically said 'NO Jaywalking" so I had to find and overpass which was about a block and a bit away.

By this time it was late afternoon. My main cellphone was close to dying. I was getting tired from too much sun. At this point I made the decision to get a room for a short term stay and they were surprisingly cheap. I checked out three hotels.

The Hurry Son Inn.

The Hotel Ava

And I did check out three other hotels (only the Copacabana comes to mind because I was tired and hot). I also found a little impromptu street food fair. However, I was too tired so I got a room at the Hotel Ava and rested for a few hours.

Later I used my backup phone to get a Grab (my main phone died which is why there were not more pictures)

Side note: After checking into the Hotel Ava and getting a drink and using the AC to cool off. I went back to the first hotel because I was wondering how bad a really cheap room was.

I mean $6 HBD is not an expensive room in my opinion :)

Honestly the room was nicer than I expected. It was certainly basic but all the necessities were there. And things like vermin and insects were not :)

Overall I am so very pleased with how the day went. It was the perfect last day to my Winter 2026 Asia trip. Thanks for letting me share it with you....and to Hive account@dlmmqb who is my good friend on Hive I wanted to tag you because... well, when I meet a comic book legend...I have to share it with someone :)